Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-10-07

yVuuS ub00S YOU cannon
build wall so high as to be independent
OF the character Of its feundations9 A
before 80 years of age may commit
81 enough sin TO last him lifetime. A cat
5 ~ mas FAILED one pigeon cannot be cured.
Weep IL from killing the first pigeon. Now,
''ohn, or George, or Charles, OF William,
OF Alexander, or Andrew, or Henry. or
Whatever b your Christian name or sur
name, say here and now: mo wild oats
1or me-, no cigars or cigarettes for me. NO
VINE or peer for me, no nasty stories for
me, no Sunday sprees for me. l am going
70 start right and keep on right. God help
me- lol am very weak. From the throne
oI eternal righteousness let down to me
tne principles by which can be guided in
ounalng everything from foundation to
hand of Christ, throw me a plumb ,;nein
Lord Nelson's general direction when
gong into naval battle was, no man can do
wrong that places his ship close alongside
That OF the enemy. Ny friend, you will
never do wrong if you keep your life close
alongside the Ten Commandments. Do
right and you can be as brave as Maria
theresa, who rode up the hill of Defiance
and shook her sword at the four corners of
the earth. -
but, you say. "you shut US young folks
out from all fun" Oh, no! like fun. I
believe in fun. l have had lots of Il in NV
time. But have not had to 90 into paths
OF sin to find it. No credit to me, but be-
cause OF an extraordinary parental example
ana influence | was kept from outward
trangresslons, though my heart was bad
enough and desperately wicked. l have
mad Jun lllimitable, though 1 never swore
one oath, and never gambled for so much
as me value OF pin, and never saw the in
sac OF haunt of sin save as when ten
years ago. with commissioner of police and
detective and two elders of my church, I
explored these cities by midnig ht, not out
OF curiosity, but that [ might in pulpit dis.
courses set before the people the poverty
ana the horrors of underground city life.
Yet though never was intoxicated for an
instant, and never committed one act of
dlssoluteness. restrained only by the grace
OF God, without which restraint I would
have gone headlong to the bottom of in.
fanny, have had so much fun that I don
believe there is man on the plane
III the present time who has had
more. Hear it, men and boys, women and
girls, MI the fun is on the side of right.
Sin may seem attractive, but it is beautiful,
and like the manchineel, o tree whose dews
are poisonous. The only genuine happi-
ness is in an honest Christian life. The
Chippewa, wanting to see God. blackens
vision of what he calls God. My God I
can see best when take my hat off and let
the sunshine blaze in my face, and after
reasonable breakfast. He is not God of
blackness and starvation, but of light and
plentltude, and the glory of the MONDAY
sun is Egyptian midnight compared to it.
There they go-two brothers. The one
was converted year ago in church, one
Sunday morning, during prayer, or sermon,
or hymn. No one knew it at the time. The
persons on either side of him suspected
nothing, but in that young mans
soul this process went on: Lord,
here am, young man amid the
temptations of city life, and am afraid to
risk them alone; come and be my pardon,
and my help; save me from making the
mistake that some of my comrades are
making, and save me now" And quicker
than flash God rolled Heaven into his
soul. He is just as jolly Us he used to be,
is just as brilliant as he used to he. He
can strike q ball or catch one as easily as
before he was converted. With gun or
fishing rod in this summer vacation be was
just as skillful as before. The world is
brighter TO him than ever. He appreciates
pictures, music, innocent hilarity, social
life, good jokes, and has plenty of fun,
first-class fun, glorious fun. But his
brother is going down hill. In the morn
ing his head aches from the champagne
debauch. Everybody sees he is in rapid
descent. What cares he for right, or
decency, or the honor of his family name?
Turned out Of employment, depleted in
health, cast down in spirits. the typhoid
fever strikes him in the smallest room on
the fourth story of fifth rate boarding
house, cursing God, and calling for his
mother, and fighting back demons from his
dying pillow, which is besweated and torn
to rags. He plunges out of this world with
the shrek of a destroyed spirit. Alas for
that kind of fun! 1t is remorse. tits dis
pair. 1t is blackness of darkness. 1t is
woe amending and long reverberating, and
crushing az though all the mountains of all
continents rolled on him in one avalanche.
My soul, stand back from such fun. Young
man, there is no fun in shipwrecking your
character, no fun in disgracing your
fathers name. There is no fun in break
ing your mothers heart. There is no fun
in the physical pangs of the disselute.
There is no fun in the prohigate's death
bed. There is no fun in an undono eter-
nifty. Paraceisus, out of the ashes OF
burnt rose, said he could recreate the rose,
but he failed in the alchemic undertaking,
and roseate life once burned down in sin
can never again be made to blossom.
Oh, this plumb line of the everlasting
right! God will throw it over all our lives
to show us our moral reflections. God
will throw it over all churches to show
whether they are doing useful work or are
standing instances of idleness and pre-
tense. He will throw that plumb line over
all nations to demonstrate whether their
laws are Just or cruel, their rulers good or
bad, their ambitions holy or infamous. He
threw that plumb line over the Spanish
monarchy of other days, and what became
OF her? Ask the splintered hulks Of her
overthrow armada. lie threw the plumb
line over the French imperialism, aud
what was the result? Ask the ruins of her
Tuieries, and the fallen column of the
Plnce Vendome, and tho grave trenches of
Sedan, and the blood Of revolutions of diff
ferent times rolling through the Champs
Elysees. He threw that plumb line over
ancient Rome, and what became of the
realm of the CAESARS? Ask her war eagles,
With beak dulled and wings broken, flung
helpless into the Tiber. He threw it over
the Assyrian empire of thou
sand years, the thrones of
Semiramis, and Sardanapalus, and
Shalnaneser, of twenty-seven victorious
expeditions, the cities of Phunicia kneeling
to The scepter, and all the world blanched
in the presence. What became of all the
grandeur? Ask the fallen palaces of
A. 1,o,,